Six Organizations Helping Fight Food Insecurity in Toronto

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Have you ever struggled with not having food to eat during the day? The real kind of struggle, where paying for that next meal just doesn’t seem possible?

How about the pain of not being able to feed your children?

While many of us are still living in the abundance we’ve enjoyed all of our lives, the fear of not knowing where your next meal comes from is looming over increasing numbers of people as the COVID-19 pandemic persists towards the end of the year.

The most affected are obviously the ones who have been consistently struggling for access to food. But now, those who were scraping by before are at severe risk in these challenging times.

Thankfully, we can look to the generous work of these organizations which have undertaken the responsibility of leading the fight against food insecurity in Toronto. We encourage all of the Our Better Selves community to follow the links to their websites so you can begin your journey to resolve food insecurity too!

B12Give

Emerging from the need to find a better way to deal with the egregious amount of surplus food disposed of daily, B12Give, works to fill the gap between food retailers and those in need. In doing so, they’re helping to reduce retail food waste throughout the city of Toronto and reduce food insecurity for some of the most at-risk individuals all at once. The Our Better Selves community had the privilege of participating in B12Give’s strategic planning at one of our Change Agent Dinner’s earlier this year.

Second Harvest Food Rescue

As the second-largest food rescue organization in Canada and a global thought leader on the topic of food recovery, Second Harvest rescues and redistributes enough nutritious, unsold food to provide over 43,000 meals per day throughout the country. From farm to retail they work across the supply chain to capture surplus food before it ends up in landfills - negatively impacting our environment and leaving thousands of less-fortunate individuals hungry.

Toronto Youth Food Policy Council

The Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, the TYFPC as it’s better known, has grown from a small group into a community of over 200 that have been successfully providing sustainable food policy recommendations to Toronto Public Health since 1991. By mobilizing young and diverse communities in Toronto to engage in food policy workshops, they’re helping to build a sustainable food system and find solutions for food insecurity.

Building Roots

In 2013, Building Roots grew in response to a lack of access to fresh food and agricultural growing space throughout Toronto. They quickly learned that the inadequacies of the present food system are a product of greater issues present in some of the city’s lowest-income neighbourhoods.This knowledge allowed them to focus on building resources and launching their charity, The Growing Neighbourhoods Foundation, to expand on the work they’ve done throughout the city.

Foodshare

By taking cues from those most affected by poverty and food insecurity - people of colour and those with disabilities, Foodshare aims to inspire long-term solutions for an affordable food system where everyone has access to fresh, nutritious food. Through their various food justice programs, they reach over 260,000 people each year and help to ensure everyone can feed themselves and those they care about in a comfortable and dignified way.

Daily Bread Food Bank

With a team of over 10,000 volunteers, Daily Bread Food Bank is working diligently to fundamentally change the way that people think about poverty and end hunger through Toronto communities in the process. They understand that food insecurity hurts entire neighbourhoods and with their network of front-line agencies, they’re positioned to address the needs of the most vulnerable residents within them.